Cross border insolvencies and financial restructurings are remarkably opaque considering we live in the Information Age. The mission of the Centre of Main Interest (the COMI) is to light some candles in the darkness and create a forum for further discussion. The Law Offices of Tally M. Wiener, Esq. are pleased to publish the COMI blog.
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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Ex-Bank Executive May Face Death in Vietnam Fraud Trial

Very un-American. Is Vietnam too harsh on executives? Is the US too lenient?

Per www.bloomberg.com:

By Bloomberg News -
Nov 12, 2013 10:50 PM ET

A Vietnam
court will consider the death penalty for two former executives if
they’re convicted in a $25 million fraud scheme, signaling an aggressive
stance as leaders seek to clean up the banking system.
The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City may hand down the death penalty for Vu Quoc Hao, the former general director of Agribank Financial Leasing Co. (FLKO)
No. 2, who is charged with embezzling 531 billion dong ($25 million) of
state property, the official Vietnam News reported yesterday. Dang Van
Hai, the former chairman of a construction company, also faces the death
penalty in the case, the newspaper said.
The trial comes as the government seeks to shore up Vietnamese banks saddled with Southeast Asia’s
highest rate of bad debt and turn around an economy that grew last year
at the slowest pace since 1999. The central bank governor vowed to
crack down on violations by groups of shareholders working against
banking reforms last year.
“It would be a signal: You could be
executed for being caught doing large-scale corruption,” said Adam
McCarty, the Hanoi-based chief economist at Mekong Economics. “It has
implications for the whole bank restructuring the government is about to
do. They want to really dig into these bad debt issues and find out who
is responsible for the problems.”

For more, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-12/ex-bank-executive-may-face-death-in-vietnam-fraud-trial.html